Sapphire, Shikon no Tama
by Trista's Timely Tales
Summary: In the wake of Naraku's death, a girl from another world crashes into the feudal era of ancient Japan carrying with her the fully assembled Shikon jewel, the soul of Kikyo trapped inside. Takes place after the anime ended.
1. Part 1 “Cheating the Wind”

**:: Sapphire / Shikon no Tama :: part 1 -- "Cheating the Wind"**

**written by J. Anne of Trista's Timely Tales**

the charachter Sapphire was created by Shelley Dream

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**Summary: **In the wake of Naraku's death, a girl from another world crashes into the feudal era of ancient Japan carrying with her the fully assembled Shikon jewel, the soul of Kikyo trapped inside. Takes place after the ending of the anime.

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The weather was cool and windy that day in the Tormuru province of western Earth. The sun was shining down upon the land however, and warming whoever it touched. You would think then, that were one only to reach out and get closer to that sun, one could be warmer still. After all, when you bring your hands closer to the fire, isn't it a warmer spot to be in?

Such simple logic doesn't always apply though. As young woman named Sapphire, who's glowing wings carried her on the winds in the sky, had learned all too well in her short life here on Earth. For she was now much closer to the sun than those on the ground, but she was not nearly so warmed by it. Wind you see. A loophole as it were. The farther you got from land and the higher up you went into the sky, the closer to the sun you where, the more wind there was to cool you down. It was like that in life too: loopholes, trade-offs, technicalities, and harsh realities that made what should be simple and good, confusing and windy and cold. If you didn't look out.

Fortunately though, in this case, she knew how to cheat the wind from ruining the sky for her. Magic was such a wonderful thing, she thought to herself. At least it was today. But then, when she was flying like this, a lot of things seemed a lot more wonderful than they did on the ground. Magic was like that. It gave her wings, which were wonderful in the sky, but brought her more pain and misery than anything else when she was on the ground. If for the way other people looked at her when she brought them out if nothing else.

Like today for instance.

Today, she and her father and two of her siblings had been visiting the province on diplomatic matters. Tormuru city was located by the sea, and she and her brother, Onyx, had gone walking along the docks. They'd met a group of local kids their own age who had offered to show them the sights.

The group had ended up on the docks, watching the ships come in while talking about nothing in particular. It had been fun, really fun, and she had felt so happy and at peace there. More so than she'd felt in a long time in fact, apart from times when it was just her family and her that is. But this was different, she was actually out with other kids, and she felt… normal. She smiled at remembering it even know.

Of course it hadn't lasted.

A small boat had capsized, a young girl was going to drown, rescue services were no where to be seen. She had to act, or have that girl's death on her conscious. So she did. Stepping forward towards the edge of the dock, she let her wings grow from her back and take shape and then she stretched them out, took a few steps forward and left the solid footing of the dock to glide out on the wind, swoop up the helpless girl into her arms, and fly back to the dock.

It only took her about a couple minutes really. And the girl was totally in awe of her; asking her if she was part bird and if she would take her flying with her sometime. She'd promised that she would if time and her father's schedule would allow for it. And then she handed the girl off to the approaching medics who were just arriving on the scene so that the girl could be checked over properly to make sure she hadn't been injured, didn't have a concussion or the like. Of course, when she'd turned back to see the looks on her new 'friends'' faces, well, they weren't as friendly anymore.

They looked at her like she was a freak. She'd put her wings away again, and tried to brush off the slightly suspicious looks that she was getting. But as her brother began to glower at them more and more, she could tell there would be a fight if things went on that way. So she made their excuses, thanked them politely for the tour and dragged her brother off away from them and back towards their hotel.

On the way back, her brother had not stopped grumbling about how petty and spiteful and ungrateful those kids were How he'd like to bloody them up a bit, maybe pound some sense into their 'thick' heads. This only added to her growing unease and she felt like just getting away for a while. So that's what she told him, that she just needed some air, some time by herself, and would he mind going on without her for a while. He grumbled at this and made some token protests, assuring her that he would try to be better company; but he understood her mood, and let her go without much of an argument. Which she did, after securing his promise that he wouldn't go back and try to start something with those kids they had met. That having been done, she'd taken to the sky, uncharacteristically not giving thought to the startled reactions of those around her as her wings took shape and she left into the skies.

And so here she was, flying in the sky, a forest having replaced the buildings below her long minutes before, and her thoughts were wondering again back to the expression on that little girl's face as she looked up at her. She'd never had anyone look at her like that before, and the more she thought about it, the more it made her happy. She'd definitely have to see about keeping her pledge to the girl and taking her flying soon. If only to thank her for lifting her spirits so much, if nothing else.

And so, not very many moments later, just as a mountain came into view on the horizon, Sapphire's thoughts having turned to an amusing imaginary scenario about her brother getting into a fight with the birds at the docks. The birds having been scoundrels enough to steal his pastry, and Onyx, his honor having been insulted, having taken up the banner and pledged that the birds would not enjoy their ill-gotten gains. No, he would get his pastry back and give it to some more deserving creature. Perhaps a dog who would be polite enough to ask with a kindly bark, or a cat who gave a friendly meow as his or her request? Either way, those thieving birds and the honor besmirched Onyx were still battling one another fiercely in her mind, small amused bouts of laughter bubbling up from inside her as she flew along, when her wondering gaze caught a flash of light out of the corner of her eye. She looked on and the blinking light seemed to be moving towards her at an alarming speed.

As she stared at the light, the world seemed to go off kilter. The sky all of the sudden looked like a warm reddish pink and the air seemed to warm around her and come at her in gusts. She maneuvered the wind currents with practiced skill though, keeping herself aloft and avoiding being tossed about overmuch.

Once or twice though, she lost sight of the blinking light, but as she turned again and her eyes caught sight of the light once more, the light seemed to turn red too and begin to fall out of the sky. All at once, the excessive winds stopped and the world slowly began to right itself again in her eyes. She looked after the light, and as she did, her eyes seemed to zoom forward a little, like as if she suddenly had a zoom-in function like on a camera but actually inside her eyes. She could almost make out what the light was…

It seemed lost to her somehow, like it didn't belong here and it knew that. As her vision of the light grew clearer, she almost imagined she heard a small voice in her ears, asking for help. And just like that, she knew she had to help. Somehow. So down she went, chasing after the falling light with a single-minded determination to save it from it's fate. Time slowed down, and her eyes remained locked with the falling light. But, it was falling too quickly, almost like something was trying to keep it away from her, to make sure it fell. So she dove, arching her wings and setting her weight into the dive. Faster, faster she fell until the light seemed but a few meters out of reach, and then she could see it clearly. It wasn't a light, but a jewel. A red jewel, and as recognition hit her, her outreached hand closed around the jewel and there was a loud crack of translucent energy that came from her hand, sounding like a sonic boom had just gone off over her shoulder.

The world was topsy-turvy again, but oh so much worse than before. Light and noise and wind dazzled and shook the air around her, she couldn't tell how long, but soon everything just seemed to go blank and she hit the ground, hard.

She groaned in protest to the treatment her body had been given. Her senses crashing back to her. Her whole body ached, especially her right shoulder. And there was the world around her, it didn't seem quite right somehow. She did know grass when she fell on it though. She was laying in grass, and her right hand felt warm. The jewel. That was in her right hand, she should take a look.

She tried to move, but that just hurt more. She opened her eyes and everything seemed too bright, so she closed them again and then squinted a little to let herself adjust to the light better. As she did she felt the warmth from her hand start to spread, and soon her whole body felt warm. She felt like sleeping. As she dosed off, she thought she heard voices. One was a woman's voice. It said "Are thee all right child? Can ye here me? Child?" she felt her shoulder being shaken. And then there was another voice, much harder to hear, faint, distant, yet somehow also very close. This voice simply said to her "Thank you."

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to be continued


	2. Part 2 “Waking Dreams”

**:: Sapphire / Shikon no Tama :: part 2 -- "****Waking Dreams****"**

**written by J. Anne of Trista's Timely Tales**

the charachter Sapphire was created by Shelley Dream

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As in a dream, she looked on through eyes not her own. What was happening? Where... her memories were hazy and somehow unfamiliar to her.

Before her, she could see through a black fog. A man was there. The shadowy smoke seemed to wind and writhe about him as though they knew each other. His back was turned to her at first, but as he turned, she saw his face. He was not unhandsome, his face hewn in a pleasing shape, framed by long flowing wavy black hair. But he was not even close to appealing to look at. Despite his features, all she could think of was how ugly and vile this man before her was, how she longed to rip him to sunders. The world would thank her for it, she was eerily sure. It was insane really, how strongly her instincts were screaming at her to attack, to destroy this man... What was so unsettling was that she thought she knew the reason why, but at the same time, that reason seemed to be only on the tip of her tongue, just out of reach.

The man looked at her, looked her in the eyes, and a cold hollow smile seemed to tug at the corner of his lips. Sapphire's heart and mind blazed with fury and she tried with everything that she had to reach out and strike at him, but while she had the strange sensation of moving, she got no closer to him, not one inch. Though still she tried, she had to, she had to protect... something. He was a threat to her, he was a threat to... something, something she knew she had to defend. She screamed in a mindless rage at her inability to strike him.

But, for all this, he didn't even seem to notice. He did start to speak though; mad words that made no sense, though they seemed strangely familiar to her. He was glowing, she could sense it. Little specks scattered about inside and around him. They where hers! She had to get them back! But as the man stood before her and reached out his hand, the specks of light seemed to notice and glow brighter, humming with anticipation. And his hand opened, and she saw, it had held a dark midnight black lotus flower that seemed to be made of glass. The specks flared to life further and rushed towards the flower as if they were crazed with thirst.

She felt it, could see more sparkles flying in from far away, their lights suddenly bright in her mind's eye, and the man laughed a mocking, mysterious laugh. Surely he must be mad. But... as the sparkles came together and she could feel the power in the flower unfold to her inner sight, she had to laugh as well. A surprised, happy laugh that comes when something of great irony and good luck happens to you out of the blue. Because now she new, this man might well be mad, but that madness had made a fool of him. Because, this time, when she reached out to move, her hands and arms obeyed, her eyes sparked with new life, and the barrier he had used to keep her dormant fell away like shattered glass before her.

The look of shock on his face was almost funny.

A lotus flower from the gardens of heaven. An unheard of rarity in the world of mortals, and now it's power was in her hands. And she would use it as she had always done, to destroy the evil, to destroy the monster man before her. But, though fear now colored his dark eyes, this was none the less a formidable monster she faced, and he did not seem willing to go to his death easily... Their struggle was long and hard, but it was one she knew well how to wage. The fight was almost like an old friend to her, and she danced to it's tune as though she had been doing this forever. So the man died and she was fee of him, the world was free of him. And she had this beautiful flower... all the way from heaven, that had seen fit to bless her with it's presence. Now she could live again. Now she, at last, could be happy. She could find a place in the sun, and she could rest.

But... as she looked into the flower's pedals, she couldn't help but stare at the wonder there was to see there. It was like she was in a trance. Stars opened up before her, she could see... so much... It was almost like, if she just reached out her hand, she could be there.... but as she did, the flower seemed to grab hold of her, like she was caught in a raging tempest, it dew her in and she was gone. A flower once again black as empty space and sparkling from the reflected moonlight falling to the ground where she had been.

Flashes of light. A hand reaching for hers. She was so tired. How long had she been traveling? Would she ever reach home? A hand reaching for hers; the hand of a stranger. It was her hand. Her own hand. She needed help, surely if anyone would help her, it would be herself who would. 'Help me' she asked of her, 'I am lost and I don't know who I am'. And no sooner did she say it, ask it, than she fell asleep, knowing that she had found her way, that she was safe, and that someone, someone would finally catch her.

"Mhamah," she mumbled to herself. It was entirely too light. Hide my eyes. Don't want to wake up yet, feels so warm in bed. Just want to sleep. Stupid hand on her shoulder. Wasn't this where she went to sleep in the first place? Hand on her shoulder trying to wake her. No, wait, there was grass that time, not a pillow. And a girl in the water, did I already save her? Why are people looking at me that way? I'd let you have wings of your own if I could, really. And why is my brother fighting with those pelicans? Doesn't he know that's silly? Ony is a silly pidgin fighter. But I love him, he's my brother. He'd fight a whole flock to keep my biscuits safe, I just know he would. But why is this old woman shaking me so? Doesn't she know I want to sleep?

"Child? Child, ye must wake up. Morning has came and went, and still you sleep, though nothing ails ye?" she spoke.

"Mhm," Sapphire whined. "You talk funny," she complained. "Wanna sleep more."

"Oh for crying out loud! Just get out of my way old lady, this girl's got some explaining to do!" a third voice said as Sapphire tried to burry her face further into the pillow to get away from them. It didn't seem to work though, as she soon felt someone tugging on her blankets trying to get them away from her.

How dare they!? These are my blankets and you can't have them! Sapphire thought defiantly as she pulled them back. "Oh no you don't. You're gonna wake up little kid!" The annoying annoyed voice said, pulling back harder.

"No!" Sapphire refused, "Go AWAY!" she demanded, pulling back all the harder, still refusing to open her eyes.

"Stubborn girl, I'm not gonna lose to you," the voice said.

"InuYasha, just let go of the blanket already!" A fourth voice said. "If she wants to sleep more, let her!"

"But Kagome..." he said as he felt himself being yanked off his feet while the girl named Kagome had distracted him.

"InuYasha!" Kagome called after him.

"Ha! Got you now!" Sapphire declared as they both tumbled into a heap on the floor beside her bed. The boy under her made a muffled sound in protest as his back hit the floor. She got up on her hands and moved the sheet away from the boy's face. "I win," she said triumphantly.

The boy looked up at her in exacerbation. He had long white hair and these adorable little puppy ears on the top of his head. He was so cute!

"You did huh? I don't think so. You're out of bed and awake, aren't you?" he challenged in that annoyed sounding voice he seemed to be so good at speaking in.

"Um..." she thought about this. "I guess you do have a point," she conceded. (She didn't know why she did what she did next, but the fact was, she did it none the less.) "So, since you won, I guess I should give you a reward huh?" she smiled down at him, moved her face down, tilted her head, and kissed him. On the lips. And she didn't stop for a good thirty seconds either.

"Hey you! Get off of him already!" She heard a girl's voice say and felt hand close on her shoulders and pull her off the boy.

Sapphire looked between InuYasha, who had a blush on his face (and was, for once, quiet), and Kagome who was also red-faced but for a different reason.

"Lecherous creep! Sit boy! Sit! Sit! Sit!" She commanded, and InuYasha was driven into the floor with concussive force four times over until we was looking like he was out for the count. "Hmh!" she said turning on her heal and grumbling "All I need, a female version of Miroku; stupid dog, well she can just have him, see if I care!" and some other less comprehensible things under her breath as she stormed out the door and left Sapphire sitting there with a bewildered and unaccountably amused look on her face.

"Um, so hi," Sapphire greeted. "I'm Sapphire. Who are you?... and where am I exactly?" Sapphire asked the old woman, who was the only one left in the room to talk too, the cute puppy boy still very out of it.

"I be Kaede, priestess of this village, and do ye mean to say that you do not know how ye came to be here?" Kaede asked.

"How I came here?" Sapphire asked, all of the sudden feeling lightheaded. Her gaze wondered over to where InuYasha was still laying in an indent in the floor. "I know him from somewhere, don't I? ...and that girl, Kagome, I know her too. Is she his girlfriend?" She wondered. "Guess I shouldn't have kissed him then," she giggled a little and thought the whole thing to be very funny. "And you. Now that I think of it, you seem really familiar to me too... I wonder why?"

"Ye know of me?" Kaede asked. "Yet, young Kagome did not seem to recognize ye, nor did InuYasha. And I know ye not either..." her voice trailed off as she looked at Sapphire more closely as if trying to figure something out.

"I don't know how I know them, or you, but I do know them, and you, from.... someplace... I shouldn't though, should I?" Sapphire asked.

"Ye seem to know more than me child, but I must admit, there is something about ye that does seem like... May I ask you a question?"

"Sure. Of course. You know you can ask me anything," Sapphire offered.

"I..." Kaede looked at her strangely at that, then shook her head of the thought she couldn't place. "That is, earlier. When ye fell to the ground, ye had wings, like those of a bird on thy back, but after ye slept, they disappeared from sight. How is such a thing possible?"

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to be continued


	3. Part 3 “Words In The Air”

**:: Sapphire / Shikon no Tama :: part 3 -- "****Words In The Air****"**

**written by J. Anne of Trista's Timely Tales**

the charachter Sapphire was created by Shelley Dream

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In the skies above a small village located far into Japan's past, a six year old boy was having the time of his life, shouting for joy as a teenage girl carried him and his sister in her arms, showing them the sky up close and personal.

"The clouds are so close," his sister marveled. "Can we touch them?" she asked.

"Of course we can!" Sapphire replied happily. "Wanna try something fun?" She asked the two children mischievously.

"Sure!" the boy said, eager for more excitement.

"Okay, yeah!" his sister caught the excitement too.

"Okay then!" Sapphire said, speeding up in the air and trailing a hallo of amaranth colored light as she went.

The three aerialists soon burst through the center of a cloud and up into the sky above where Sapphire proceeded to twirl around in a spiral before throwing the two children she carried high into the air. She zoomed up to meet them as they began to fall, but the amaranth magic she was giving off still surrounded them as they fell. She told them not to worry and to make sure to have fun as she darted off below them, moving almost faster than the children could see and then disappeared into the clouds so they couldn't see her for a moment. But then the cloud below them seemed to glow with Sapphire's same color of light and the clouds opened up like a flower, swirling about and forming a shape like a small island surrounded by layers of floating lattices.

Shining lights and floating lotus flowers made of energy, along with birds and butterflies also made of light, all floated and flew around the two wildly smiling and amazed children as their descents slowed and they seemed to just float down to land gently on the newly made cloud island. They stood there, on a cloud solid as soft summer's grass beneath their feet, and saw Sapphire sitting a ways away on a sort of bench, an amused and happy smile on her face.

"Wow, wow, WOW!" The boy said, spinning around in a circle and barely believing his eyes.

"Are you a goddess?" the girl asked. "...I know you told my mom and dad you weren't but... you must be, right?" the girl reached out as a butterfly made of light landed on her finger.

"No, not a goddess... I mean, I could never do stuff like this before, but I'm definitely not that... or well, if I am somehow, no one ever told me so," she said shrugging. "So, can I take it to mean you like my little lightshow then?" she asked playfully.

The girl just laughed a happy laugh and nodded enthusiastically 'yes'.

"Well then, you better go catch up with your brother before he manages to fall off the edge or something," Sapphire remarked with a look at the brother in question who had strayed off chasing a bird.

"Boys are silly," the girl giggled.

"Don't I know it," Sapphire laughed as she and the girl went over to fetch the brother in question. "I have a brother too you know."

Meanwhile, down below on the ground....

"She's amazing, isn't she?" Sango commented to Kagome as they looked up at the sky and saw the spectacle before them. "It's like she can do almost anything without even trying hard... It's almost scary really."

"Yeah..." Kagome said.

"But she seems really nice though, don't you think? I don't think she's our enemy. And Kirara really seems to like her, so I think we can trust her," she said. The fire cat in question resting in a ball in her lap as she spoke. "I wonder where she came from though?... she seems really familiar, like... I've met her before, you know?"

Kagome nodded absently. She did know. It had been three days sense the girl named Sapphire had awoken, and while she had been nothing but nice to her, and had respectfully kept a proper distance between herself and InuYasha, Kagome could tell by the way that they looked at each other that there was something there between them. Which was strange, really strange. It was almost like... but that would be crazy. And what was up with Sapphire staring at her like that? She'd caught the girl doing it at least three times and it was really unnerving. Like she knew exactly, exactly, what she was thinking and feeling. Yet, when she looked at Sapphire, all she got were really confused impressions. Sometimes it was like starting at a mirror, sometimes Sapphire seemed like just a normal girl whom she'd just met, and other times she seemed just plan larger than life. And it was like, nothing bothered her, like she was always at peace and really, really happy. Really strong too. Like nothing could hurt her. Like everything that had tried, she'd won against it all. "Yeah... I know..." Kagome said, getting up to walk off.

"You're not still mad at her for the kiss are you?" Sango asked to Kagome's standing form.

Sango was being really sinecure and friendly, and so Kagome replied. "I don't know... I guess I am a little." She admitted as she turned back to face her friend. "At the same time though, I find it really hard to hate her though. She's just... likeable." Kagome admitted helplessly.

"Hey Kagome?" Kagome heard a familiar voice call to her.

Turning, she saw InuYasha a ways a away and went over to meet him. "What is it InuYasha?" she asked.

"I was wondering, do you sense anything when you look at this Sapphire girl lately?" InuYasha asked, an untrusting look in his eyes.

"Anything like what?" Kagome asked.

"Anything like... what you sense when a Shikon jewel fragment is near by."

Kagome's eyes winded a little as realization hit her. "Yes! Yes I do!" she said. "I couldn't tell before, but..." She looked up into the sky and focused her magic senses there as she saw the cloud island above them shimmer and start to dissipate. "She has it... the whole jewel.... it's inside her," Kagome said in awe and surprise as she continued to stare while she saw Sapphire begin to descend back to the ground with the two village children she had taken out flying with her that day.

InuYasha's eyes narrowed at the girl with wings. "Kikyo." Was all he said.

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to be continued


	4. Part 4 “Lives Is Funny Sometimes”

**:: Sapphire / Shikon no Tama :: part 4 -- "****Lives Is Funny Sometimes****"**

**written by J. Anne of Trista's Timely Tales**

the charachter Sapphire was created by Shelley Dream

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"What do you mean I'm 'Kikyo'? Who's Kikyo?" Sapphire asked an increasingly impatient InuYasha.

"You're not fooling me!" He challenged, grabbing her by the shoulders insistently. "Kagome can see right though you! You've got the jewel inside you, and that's where Kikyo's soul is! I should have known it right away, there was just something about you that..." InuYasha turned away. "I know it's you Kikyo, so, just tell me what's going on, okay?" he pleaded.

"I... I really don't know," Sapphire admitted helplessly. "I told you the truth." She said, looking between the faces around her. Kagome, Sango, and Kaede flanking her along with InuYasha, plus Kirara who had been growling softly at InuYasha in warning ever sense he had unexpectedly grabbed Sapphire. "I was flying over the forest, I saw a light and it called to me, it started to fall, I caught it, then I was here... I... the light, you said... I have a jewel inside me?"

"Yes, it's called the Shikon jewel... or the Jewel of Four Souls." Sango interjected, while also trying to calm Kirara down. "It's very powerful. My family was trusted to keep it safe. Until today, though, I'd thought it was broken and scattered."

"When I was diving for the light... I thought for a moment, that it was a jewel... but... when I woke up, it was gone, so I thought.... It's inside me? Is that why I feel so different? Why I can do all of these things?" She asked Sango.

"It must be," Sango confirmed. "The jewel makes the one who holds it a lot more powerful than they normally would be... it heals them and... but, you can't use it very well unless you are a demon or you have strong spiritual powers... like Kikyo had."

"Are you seriously telling us that you don't know?" InuYasha asked and Sapphire backed up a step. "Kikyo! Please I..." But Kirara growled and pounced on him before he could continue. "Hey! Stupid fire cat, get off me already!" He demanded.

"Kirara!? Kirara, what's gotten into you?" Sango asked a little panicked as she tried to get her friend to stop grappling with InuYasha, which Kirara eventually did. Much to all their relief. "I wonder why she..."

"She's gone!" InuYasha exclaimed, quickly getting to his feet again, the scuffle with the fire cat now completely forgotten. "Kikyo!" he called out, trying to catch her scent but then looking up into the sky with a kind of lost look on his face. "...she flew away..."

From there, the day just seemed to go by as it would.

InuYasha had simply walked off and had been quiet and pensive, keeping to himself and rebuffing any offers of company. He'd ended up taking up residence in an out of the way tree that overlooked a field not far away.

As for Kagome, she had become increasingly irritable and annoyed at her boyfriend for still being this hung up about Kikyo after all this time. It was a very unique kind of frustration she had, one she thought she'd finally seen the last of: being jealous of a part of yourself. Sango had been trying to cheer her up though, and a half hour ago the two of them, plus Kirara, had gone for a walk down by the river to talk about things.

"Do you think this could all be some kind of trick?" Kagome asked thoughtfully as they walked along the river's edge at a leisurely pace.

Sango looked over at her and considered her words. "What kind of trick could it be?" she asked.

"Well, it's kind of a lame story, don't you think?" Kagome asked her friend plaintively. "A girl from another world shows up on angel's wings and falls out of the sky. She says the right things, makes us all feel sorry for her. It seems kinda unlikely, don't you think so?"

"I don't know. Maybe." Sango admitted. "But if it is a trick, what's the point of it? What's she trying to get?/" she pondered and they were both quiet for a moment. "...and what's an 'angel'? Is that something they have in your time? People with bird wings?" she asked.

"Huh? Bird wings?" Kagome laughed at that. "Oh, no, it's like, a religious thing. In America and a lot of other parts of the world, people believe that the world was made by a god, one they just call 'God', and that this God made a race called angels that do things for him. I don't know much about it really, but some of my friends at school believe it." Kagome answered.

"Oh, so maybe that's it then." Sango wondered. "Maybe she's from the future like you, maybe even a different time? It would certainly make more sense than a different world all together that's also named Earth."

"No, I don't think that's it... At least I don't think it is. As far as I know, angels and God are just stories or something. Or if they're not, no one's ever seen them." Kagome explained.

"Well, legends usually have some truth behind them at least," Sango said. "So who knows?"

"Well, I guess that's true," Kagome admitted. "In my time, most people think demons and magic and stuff are all imaginary too. So who's to say angels aren't real too?"

"We can ask her about it anyway," Sango reasoned. "If she ever comes back I mean."

"You think she might not?" Kagome questioned.

Sango shrugged. "Maybe. If she didn't though, with how fast she is and her being able to fly..."

"Yeah, we'd never see her again I guess... I'd be stuck here!" Kagome realized. "Without the jewel, there would be no way back!" She was honestly not sure what she thought about that idea.

Sango looked over at her, surprised. "I hadn't thought about that, but I guess you're right... You've been stuck here sense when our jewel shards went missing before Sapphire arrived. I assumed we'd get them back again... but, would it be so bad, if you were trapped here I mean?" she asked looking over at her friend questioningly.

"No, I guess not," Kagome replied. "I mean, I'd miss my family of course, but..."

Sango looked down. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked that." She admitted getting a far off look. "Family is... really important..." she said, a sad quality entering her voice at the memories of her own family whom she had not even the hope of seeing again.

"Sango, I..." Kagome tried.

"No, it's okay," Sango interrupted with a cheerful smile. "And you don't have to worry, I'm sure Sapphire will be back. I still think she's a good person, and so does Kirara. I'm sure she'll help you to get home." She assured solicitously.

"You're probably right." She said, smiling a little over at Sango as they continued to walk. "I still think this might all be some kind of trap though." She looked over at Sango. "Naraku could be behind it and using Sapphire somehow, or... I mean, how was she able to gather the jewel shards together like that in the first place?"

Meanwhile, back in the village, Kaede set in the yard behind her home on a wooden bench by the well and looked out at the forest beyond. At first, she had tried to keep busy doing a few mundane tasks around her home, but as the time went on, it got to feeling a sort of hollow. Just doing things like that. It made her feel alone. More than usual, that's what she was feeling now... As the years had gone by, she had found a great deal of fulfillment in her role as village priestess. Helping others with their problems, doing what she could to protect her village. But it had been more than a village, to her, over the years, the people there had become her family. She'd done it at first, wanting to follow in her sister's footsteps. Kikyo had been her hero as a child after all, and she had been her only real blood family too. After she had died, it had been hard for her. She'd felt she had to live up to her sister's ghost - an ironic thing as things turned out - and not only that but she was also mourning the loss of that very same sister all the while. No, her life had many times not been easy, nor kind, but it had been good, she thought. A worth-while life, if nothing else. And she had gotten to see her sister again after all, wasn't that more than most people could hope for after the loss of a relative? Even for how painful it had been at times, and how much she had felt Kikyo's suffering in her own heart, it had still been a wonderful thing to be able to see her again.

But that had not lasted of course. Kikyo had died again, given her life to stop Naraku from being able to use the Jewel of Four Souls. It had been a noble death, one anyone would be proud of. And her sister's suffering had been at an end, Kikyo's soul had finally found peace. And she was happy for that, she wanted her sister to be happy. Still though, a part of her that was selfish was still grieving over her sister's loss a second time when all this business with the girl from the sky started. She had felt it from the start she now realized. A part of her had. Whoever else the girl named Sapphire was or had been, her sister's soul had been within her all along. Maybe she'd just been afraid to admit what her heart had been telling her...

She looked up, startled from her musings by a warm breeze and some small feeling in her mind that let her know that she was not alone anymore. There, in the sky above her was Sapphire, descending to the ground not but a few paces away from where she sat. The girl landed, her feet touching the ground and making not a sound. So quiet was she that Kaede thought for a moment she might be seeing things.

"Kaede?" the girl's soft voice asked.

"...Yes chi... Sapphire?" Kaede stood as Sapphire walked over next to her and offered her her hand.

"Can we talk for a while?" Sapphire asked hopefully as the two sat down.

"Yes, of course. I would like that," Kaede agreed, feeling altogether strange and unsteady in the girl's presence now. Her eyes watched the girl carefully, imagining seeing her sister in many of her movements.

"I know you," Sapphire said, looking over at Kaede. "And I know the others," She looked down. "InuYasha, a part of me feels like I am so in love with him, even after he yelled at me." She admitted helplessly. "But... that's only part of me. I guess... the part that is Kikyo... She was your sister, right?" she looked back over at Kaede.

"Yes, she was. A long time ago." Kaede got a far away look on her face. "She used to be priestess here, much as I be now. Then, she was charged to watch over the Shikon jewel, for such was her power that she was the only one who could tame it's increasingly darkening spirit then. She was an amazing person. Her heart was so big. And she was so strong, much stronger than I. Though I wished dearly that I had been her match, if only so that I could have protected her when she needed it." Kaede said.

"How... how did she die?" Sapphire asked, covering the older woman's had with her own in comfort.

"We had thought that it was InuYasha's doing... That he had betrayed her. They were in love you see. But it was not so. A demon named Naraku, born of a man named Onigumo to whom my sister had shown kindness and gotten... He was a vile man. His dark desires birthed a demon from within him, and that demon deceived my sister and InuYasha, turned their love sour... It is not a happy tale. But, neither she nor InuYasha met their final end that dark day all those years gone by... I..."

Sapphire was looking down to the ground again. "Please stop..."

"Ye do not wish me to continue?" Kaede asked.

"No I just, how about... Can you tell me about her before she died? A happier memory maybe?"

Kaede smiled. "I would be glad to..." she said comfortingly, and thought for a moment. "Let me see. I know. It would have been, my thirteenth birthday. Our mother and father had passed away two years before, so it was just the two of us, and the people of the village of course. They had always been very kind to us, and my birthday was not an exception to that. I had been worried though... My sister's relationship with InuYasha was still largely quite new, and she spent more and more of her time with him and so less with me. The last week leading up to that day had been especially so, and I feared she had forgotten sense she had not once mentioned it to me. As it turned out though, I need not have worried. For when one of my friends, a young boy named Noboru, came over to me and insisted I follow him, I was very happy to find that my sister had organized a gathering in my honor at one of the village elder's homes. So that I would not know and would be surprised. Many of those who attended presented me with gifts, but my sister, she saved her gift for the last. It was a painting on a small flat stone, about two thirds the height of your forearm. It was a picture of me with her and our parents in a forest clearing. She had used fine tools to shape the edges of things and so you could not only see the painting, but feel it with your fingers as well. It must have taken her months of work to complete it." She paused for a moment. "I felt ashamed of myself a little then, for thinking she would have forgotten, when in fact she had worked so hard... We stayed up late that night and talked about things. Remembered our mother and father mostly. She told me many stories about them, many I had never heard before... That day was..."

"Kaede are you out here? I thought I heard..." InuYasha's voice cut in as he stepped through the back door of Kaede's house. "I..." but he was struck speechless.

There, sitting before him not fifteen paces away, was something from a far off memory. He felt like he was a person out of time, or like we was seeing the spirits of the past. He wondered if he might have fallen asleep in his tree and now be dreaming, because before him sat the girl who said her name was Sapphire, and along side her was a 13 year old girl with black hair. One he would recognize anywhere as Kikyo's little sister... the 'brat' as he had called her once upon a time. And she was sitting there as though she hadn't aged a day.

"InuYasha?" Sapphire turned to look at him and in that moment, she wasn't Sapphire anymore, but Kikyo, just as he remembered her.

"Kikyo?" InuYasha spoke in a small voice.

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to be continued


	5. Part 5 “Memory Immortal”

**:: Sapphire / Shikon no Tama :: part 5 -- "Memory Immortal"**

**written by J. Anne of Trista's Timely Tales**

the character Sapphire was created by Shelley Dream

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"Kikyo, it really is you." InuYasha looked on, taking a step forwards

"Huh?" Sapphire looked at him in confusion, not being able to really help the feeling of her heart leaping to her throat at the open and vulnerable look in the boy's eyes.

InuYasha went up and knelt before her. "Kikyo, how can you be here again? Please, tell me."

"Um, what are you talking about?" Sapphire asked, her body shimmering with energy a moment and then turning back into that of a pail blonde girl from a different world who looked very out of place in Feudal Japan.

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It's funny how beautiful the sky could look. Miroku was just thinking on this fact as he walked along the path with Shippo a few paces ahead of him, urging him to hurry along.

"It's Kagome!" Shippo exclaimed. "Come on Miroku, hurry up! Don't you want to tell them the news?"

Miroku just smiled serenely as he saw the beautiful Kagome notice them and wave.

"Miroku, Shippo! Hey you two!" Kagome called.

"Kagome! " Shippo called back, hurrying over to greet his much taller friend. All of his friends were much taller than him in fact, well except for the flee, and Kirara half the time. It didn't bother him much though, just as long as he wasn't the shortest of all, he would be content in knowing he'd one day grow up to be a fine fox warrior just like his father had been.

"Hey you two, I'm glad you're back. You'll never guess what's been going on while you've been away." Kagome confided.

"Yeah well, whatever it is, it can't be as big as our news." Shippo replied.

"Really? And what's your big news then." Kagome challenged, sure it couldn't be any more big than her own.

"It's Naraku, he's-"

"Either dead, or up to something again." Miroku finished, holding up his unblemished hands, sands wind tunnel.

Kagome's eyes widened. "Well, I'd believe it. Given what's been going on lately." Kagome considered.

"You expected this?" Miroku asked, perplexed.

"No, but I-" Kagome's reply was interrupted by a loud crash, accompanied by a yell that sounded suspiciously like InuYasha.

"Come on." Miroku indicated to them as he wasted no time in going to investigate.

"Take it back!" The three heard shouted.

A mass of red cloth and white hair was laying in the wreak of a section of stone wall on the ground groaned and tried to pick itself up as they saw a blonde girl with white bird wings float on the air from the back of Kaede's house while glowing with energy and looking very upset. "Take it back InuYasha, or I'm not going to forgive you!" She demanded.

She didn't seem to notice them at all and when Miroku saw InuYasha's face, looking like a goofy comedic parody of a demon's face, two unicorn like horns on the sides of his forehead, wide baggily eyes, a tongue that was hanging down his chin, a pair of troll-like teeth protruding up from his lower jaw and looking more at home on a walrus than a human, and then of course there were the fishy ears that looked like they came from some creature from the depths of the ocean. Miroku couldn't help it, he burst out laughing.

"InuYasha?" Kagome asked, trying hard not to cringe at the sight, which came complete with dripping drool by the way.

"Yeath... Ithh meh." He tried to say through the teeth and tongue and drool.

Kagome looked over at Sapphire who all the sudden had a goofy look on her face herself. She floated down to the ground and started laughing uncontrollably. "You look so silly!" She exclaimed, laughing more so her sides were starting to hurt.

Kagome and Shippo started to laugh too.

"Thath rite, lath e up. Is thorry, oth kay? Yoth not a demn." He got out.

His speech, along with those comical eyes boggling about and making him look a little like a cartoon just making it all the more funny.

"What happened?" Kagome asked, she and the others having managed to reign in their laugher.

Uncannily, InuYasha managed to give them one of his patented 'I'm annoyed with you' looks, even with his face like that. It make Kagome laugh all over again all the more.

"Yoth can change meh bak nou." InuYasha said to Sapphire impatiently.

"Okay, okay." She said, catching her breath enough to speak and waving her hand, dissipating the cartoon demon face with a shimmer of energy. "But it serves you right you know. You shouldn't be so mean to people."

InuYasha just stared at her and turned and left.

"What did he say to you?" Kagome asked with a little trepidation, just now realizing that this other girl could probably turn her into a frog if she got on her bad side.

"He called me a demon. He said..." Sapphire started to say.

"Excuse me, um, elder sister? Am I to stay this way?" A small girl's voice asked.

"And who are you, little girl?" Miroku politely asked, bending down on one knee to greet her on more equal footing.

"It be I, Kaede." Kaede replied, looking between him, Kagome, Shippo, and the girl Sapphire who she now knew housed the soul of her sister within her.

" Kaede?" Kagome asked, looking between the small girl and Sapphire questioningly. "Sapphire...?"

"Um, yeah..." Sapphire had the grace to look a little guilty. "You see we were talking - she was telling me this story about when she was a little girl with her sister, Kikyo, and as she was talking, it was like I could remember the things she was describing to me - and I guess this just sort of happened. I didn't do it on purpose and I don't really know... I mean, do ye, I mean do you, do you want me to change you back Kaede?" She asked. It being obvious that getting your life to live again might not be seen as such a bad thing.

"I... That is I..." Kaede started, honestly not having had time to fully consider the implications yet.

"Hey guys. What's going on?" Sango asked, walking up with Kirara by her side.

Sapphire's gaze looked over to the new arrival and her eyes widened. "A demon!" She exclaimed.

Sango stopped looked around. "Ahahaha, um, what do you mean Sapphire... I'm not a demon. That's just... I mean... ah..." Sango stated to back away as the look of danger grew on the Sapphire girl's face. "Get her Kirara!" She commanded and turned to flee.

"Rrrahh!" Kirara lunged viciously at Sapphire, who just waved her arm in front of her and caused Kirara, or apparently the illusion of Kirara, to dissipate into a sparkly type of blue smoke that momentarily blinded her.

"Sango!" Kagome called after her friend, not really believing this was happening.

"Hey! Stop right there you!" Miroku called, giving chase, Sapphire having been the one to take the brunt of the smoke in her face.

"No! You won't get me!" Sango, or whoever it really was, said as she ran for the lake.

Kagome and Shippo weren't that far behind Miroku.

"Sango!" Shippo called.

"Sango, what are you doing!?" This from Kagome.

"I said stop!" Miroku called again as the hopefully fake Sango neared the edge of the water.

"And I say that too! Who are you!" Sapphire demanded, landing in between Sango and the lake, having been carried by her angel like wings.

"You weren't supposed to see me!" She said. "Sister will be upset with me." She looked around, as if to find a way to escape. "But I won't let you catch me." She stared Sapphire down and tackled her.

Sapphire yelped and screamed as she landed on her back in the not all that warm lake water, the Sango impersonator getting up to a crouching position on Sapphire's torso and using it to jump and dive into the water. The fake Sango's body not making a sound or a ripple as it vanished from sight into the lake as though it were just thin air.

Sapphire was flailing and sputtering to get herself up. Managing to get up so she was sitting at least, she put her chin in her hands and looked very grumpy and dissatisfied with the world in general. "Just great." She says. "Way to go Sapphire. Well, at least InuYasha wasn't here to see this."

"Um..." This from Kagome as she looked over her shoulder.

"Guess again, princess." A smirking InuYasha said. "I had a front row seat." He laughed as he went over to help her up.

"I can get up on my own, thank you very much." Sapphire fumed as she slapped away InuYasha's hand and grumpily got to her feet, a troublesome grin suddenly going to her lips. She shook herself and the water from her wings especially sprayed everyone but Shippo who was lucky enough to have been standing behind poor InuYasha at the time who got the brut of the shower.

"Hey! Stop that! Why you!" InuYasha protested as he raised his arms in self defense.

Sapphire just laughed. "Sorry about that." She said sweetly, a challenge in her voice clear.

"Oh, it's on now little girl."

"Oh, is it?" She challenged back, putting her hands on her hips in defiance.

"Yeah. And no fair changing me into things any more!" He dared her.

"Fine! How do you want to settle this then?" She asked. She really had no intention of changing anyone into anything again if she could help it, at least not without their permission. The idea of being able to do that was just too worrisome to her to stand.

"How about a bet?" He replied.

"What sort of bet? We have to find Sango now, or has your little puppy brain forgot already?" Sapphire further challenged.

"I haven't forgot! And it will be test of skill. Whoever is the one who saves Sango or stops the demon who has her wins."

"Alright, that's fair." Sapphire thought. "What do I get when I win?"

"Whatever you want, cuz it's not going to happen." InuYasha said arrogantly. "But when I when, you have to walk around wearing that face you gave me for a week!"

Sapphire's eyes widened and her cheeks flushed, but then she got a determined and defiant look on her face. "Alright fine. It's a bet! Come on, we've got to figure out who took her first."

"I'm right behind you." InuYasha said. "Come on you three. We have to find Sango, now!" InuYasha looked impatiently to the other three who were just standing there looking very without a clue.

"Um, what just happened?" Miroku asked.

"I don't know Miroku... But I think we better follow those two before they do something really dumb." Kagome said.

"Boy, why can't life ever be dull sometimes." Shippo said, looking up to the sky.

He could just imagine his father looking down on him from heaven, shaking his head, and saying: "I don't know, Shippo. I don't know."

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to be continued


	6. Part 6 “Face Of The Dream”

**:: Sapphire / Shikon no Tama :: part 6 -- "Face Of The Dream"**

**written by J. Anne of Trista's Timely Tales**

the character Sapphire was created by Shelley Dream

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"Whatever kind of demon that thing was that took Sango's place, I want to find it, destroy it, and get her back. We can't afford to be arguing at a time like this!" Miroku spoke urgently, slamming his hands on the table for emphasis.

"We all agree with you Miroku, even these two." Kagome said, indicating the still annoyed looking InuYasha and their new friend Sapphire, the girl from another world who apparently had Kikyo's spirit inside her. "Right?" She looked pointedly at InuYasha then at Sapphire.

"Of course, I know that. Let's just get on with it." InuYasha said, in a little of a huff by this point.

Sapphire was silent. "Sapphire?" Kagome asked in concern, feeling kind of awkward feeling concern for this girl for some undoubtedly complicated reason she didn't want to think about.

"Um, oh, yeah? What is it?" She asked, looking at Kagome in question.

"Is she feeling all right?" InuYasha asked doubtfully. "Don't get all loopy on us now, this whole situation is probably all your fault anyway."

"InuYasha! That is really not fair." Kagome admonished.

"Miss?" Miroku asked. "Lady Sapphire?" He asked, not really knowing what to make of this strange girl only having just met her moments before. "I don't think she is well." He spoke to Kagome in concern.

"Uhn, no... No, I'm okay..." Sapphire said, noticeably wavering on her feet. "What's... wrong with me...?" She asked blurrily. "Oh... I get it now... some kinda dreaming powder... That was really sneaky of... her..." She started to say, but promptly fell to the floor asleep before she could finish the thought.

"She's passing out!" Kagome exclaimed. Miroku, Shippo, and Kagome rushing to Sapphire's side to check on her. It had apparently been the dust from the fake Kirara that had done it.

InuYasha looked down curiously at the girl. "Eh, she's just sleeping." He said, a thought occurring to him. "We should just go on without her. Let her have her nap." He said, trying to sound very reasonable.

"You just want to leave her behind so you'll win the bet!" Shippo accused.

InuYasha looked offended like he wanted to bop the little fox demon one for his insolence, but the half demon boy's eyes started to widen as he saw Shippo turn into a full grown fox demon before his very eyes!

"Hey, I'm groan up now?" Shippo said, surprised at impressed with himself.

"What in..." InuYasha looked to the others, but instead of seeing who he thought he would see, a different sight all together greeted him. Sango was where Miroku had been, where Sapphire was laying on the floor was a tall woman with black hair that looked familiar to him but he couldn't place, and where Kagome was... It was Kikyo? Again? Of all of them, only Kaede seemed unchanged, still the small girl he remembered from years ago. "What's going on here?!" He exclaimed, suddenly feeling like something wasn't right with him. He felt different. He knew what this feeling was. "Oh no..." He said.

"What's going on here?" Miroku said, his voice matching Sango's as well as his looks now did. "What..." He touched his mouth and felt softer more feminine lips and heard the familiar voice escape from his mouth, his confusion growing.

"InuYasha?" Kagome/Kikyo asked, looking up at him. "This is so strange..." She said, looking then over to the woman on the floor. "Hey, you're human again!" She noticed that InuYasha had transformed like he did on that one night of his cycle and was now to all intents and purposes a regular human boy.

"Yeah, yeah." He said. "Don't make such a big deal about it. This is obviously her doing." He cast an accusing look at the strangely familiar looking woman on the floor. "Who is she now, anyway? I think I've seen that woman before..."

They all looked down at Sapphire, who started to wake up. She looked around the room with deeply ageless looking eyes. "My name is Midoriko, and I am a warrior priestess from long ago." She said. "We met, briefly not so long ago." She sat up fully, making to get to her feet, taking Miroku's offered helping hand. "I am pleased to finally be able to greet you properly. I am pleased to know all of you."

"My ancestor..." Kikyo/Kagome said, a touch of reverence entering into her voice as she spoke. "I remember... We were..."

"Our spirits, both, inhabited the Jewel Of The Four Souls, and more recently resided within this, the body of the girl who now sleeps within me." Midoriko explained.

A small sound, a young girl clearing her throat. "Excuse me, all." Kaede said, sounding shy and uncertain of herself. "Sister?" She asked, moving closer to Kikyo for protection. "What happens here?"

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Meanwhile, elsewhere somehow, vague shapes began to take form in front of Sapphire's eyes. She heard talking. Her eyes came into focus and she saw the room she was in. It was a beautiful place, white pillars and stonework, under a classical period Japanese style roof. One side of the room was open to a lake, bathed in moonlight and the fading embers of the sunset, with steps leading down to the water. The walls of the room opening at angles to the sides to give a better, more open view. There was an upper level to the room atop a few more stairs, and in this area sat furniture and something like a throne chair that was more of a lounge chair than anything. The space was decorated in a very tasteful period designed motif, but none of that mattered when Sapphire saw what was in the hands of the woman standing in front of the throne. It was the lotus flower from the gardens of heaven that she'd seen in her dreams.

She reached a hand out to it, feeling the pull of it's deep stirring of heavenly power, so out of place, a vibrant vitality against the backdrop of the mundane world around her. She found though, that she could not approach.

The woman holding the flower was speaking, and yet she couldn't quite make out what she was saying. Something hinted at the corners of her mind, some vague recognition of distain directed towards this woman, yet she couldn't recall why or who the woman was. She wore a kimono though, with black hair, and Sapphire could tell she was a demon. A very powerful one, even without the flower in her hands. With it? The girl shuddered to think what this enemy could do.

Shaking her head out of her thoughts though, Sapphire surveyed the rest of the room, her eyes growing wider as she did. Where the heck was she anyway?! Then she saw - Sango! That was Sango! And Kirara too! Her new friend was laying there on a bed of pillows, her eyes open and blank. Kirara in her smaller form curled up in a ball and sleeping. There was a blonde girl that was older than her and looked Japanese, she was sitting close to Sango, studying her curiously with her eyes. Somehow she made the connection, that this girl was the one who was the same demon who had impersonated Sango and made her fall asleep with that fake Kirara.

Weird. She felt so different now. Like she used to feel. It was really starting to settle in now that she'd realized it, she felt smaller, more alone, less than she had been. It was this kind of sad feeling, she'd never felt anything close to that feeling and she didn't quite know what to do about it. Her eyes locking again on Sango though, she decided it didn't matter right now. Sango needed her, and she had to find a way to help.

She looked around the room again. There was a handsome man with long white hair on the lounge by the side of the throne, he looked placid and not quite right some how. She could tell he was a demon to though, of a strong and powerful blood that seemed so familiar to her. In other places around the room, she saw a small green demon sitting off to the side and talking about something with a small girl who looked to be only 13 or 14 years old. The girl was just human though, not any demon essence at all around her - what was a girl like that doing here, and looking so at ease? Another mystery was the small girl with pale off-color hair who remained looking out at the lake. She, unlike the other girl, Sapphire could tell, was all demon. Though... something was just kind of off about her, even for a demon. It was a strange tableau, and she didn't know what to make of them all. Lastly, there was another woman, about the same age as the one with the lotus flower, this one shorter, but with dusty gray hair and all dressed in black head to toe, only her eyes showing. That one was off to the side and keeping her distance from the others - she seemed almost woeful in that way.

Movement caught her eyes.

The woman with the lotus flower had ceased gazing out at the lake and turned to address the blonde woman who was the shape stealer. Sapphire strained to try to make out the words. Maybe if she could hear something, she could find a clue as to where Sango was being kept prisoner. Anything might help. She had to try anyway...

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Kagura blinked, trying again to center her mind. The flower tempted her - so much at her finger tips, it was so easy to want it all. To try to take it all. But she knew the flower's whispers for what they were - a beautiful trap that would kill her if she gave it the chance. Just as it had done to her 'elder brother'. But, unlike him, she knew the ways of beautiful traps more intimately. The wind was hers, but she knew how to listen to the wind carefully. She closed her eyes and turned.

"Kishi." She looked at her younger sister, the blonde who could change appearances. ".. Show me, what did she look like?"

Kishi stood and nodded her ascent as her body shimmered and changed to look just like Sapphire, her white wings spreading wide.

"Such a strange creature she is..." Kagura remarked, looking critically at the copy of Sapphire before her. "I wonder where she comes from. What sort of creature she is..." The wind sorceress tried to gather some hint of it with her magic enhanced senses.

Kishi's eyes drifted around the room while her sister was talking to herself. Her eyes seemed to be sharper in this shape for some reason, and she began to feel a little odd. Her eyes snapped to some place on the ceiling. "Sister! We are being watched!" Kishi exclaimed, her body shifting to a fighter's stance.

Kana spun and looked where Kishi's eyes were focused, narrowing her eyes after a moment's pause in recognition that there was in fact some presence there that she couldn't see. "Reveal!" Kagura commanded, a flash of energy from the lotus flower in her hand hitting Sapphire like a blast of spring air coming off a lake. Sapphire looked at her hands and saw that she was looking more solid now and she felt herself fall to the floor, no longer floating there. "It's you!" Kagura's eyes widened, seeing the Sapphire girl there before her.

"Well, this isn't good." Sapphire spoke nervously, her body aching from the fall. She picked herself up and, seeing all eyes in the room now looking at her, she spun in instinctive fright and took to the air, her body moving like the spirit it was and flying her away at high speed off in some direction she didn't know.

"No!" Kagura exclaimed, not having had the time to react before the girl escaped. "Damn her." Kagura was angry and as she had been since she'd felt the strange girl's presence in her world, put off and uneasy even more now that she'd seen her in person. She was a threat, Kagura knew it. She would never have what she wanted as long as that girl was out there, an unknown menace to plague her thoughts.

Gritting her teeth and narrowing her eyes at the sky, Kana called for the wind and the wind replied, honoring her with servants to work her will in the form of wind demons of all shapes and sizes. "After her!" Kagura commanded them. Then turning. "Kishi, take Kanna and follow her with those wings." She walked over to her elder sister. "Kanna, dear sister. I want you to use your mirror to steal that girl's soul for me, will you?" She spoke with care to the small girl.

Kanna simply nodded her agreement and Kagura touched her sister's shoulder lightly to convey her thanks. She then turned to Kishi. "Do not fail me a second time, little sister." She warned ominously. "Do not dare." Then Kagura turned and walked back to her throne, her eyes taking on a wistful quality as they took in the sight of her beloved Sesshomaru laying there beside it, hers yet not truly hers.

For Kishi's part, she gulped nervously and then set herself in determination, going over to pick Kanna up into her arms and lift off into the sky with her. The wind swelled up around her, adding to her speed as Kagura no doubt told it to do and soon she was off and after the girl her who's body she now mimicked. She was frightened. Her sister had given her another task, and not an easy one probably. Kishi was not a brave woman, yet she owed her existence to her elder sister, and she wanted to please her very badly. For not only was she grateful to her, but more than that, she could feel the overwhelming sense of power her sister had about her that defied her understanding in ways she couldn't even begin to fathom. The thought of that power turned against her, the thought of Kagura The Wind Sorceress's wrath, was the worst thing she could imagine facing. She could not fail this time, she just couldn't...

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Sapphire broke through the clouds, the wind beating against her body in rough gusts and swells. It tried to spin her and bind her back, to the ground, to the height of the sky, she didn't know, but the wind and air, even as angry as it seemed to be at her, only had so much sway over her it seemed. She was even now only so much in the real world, her spirit pulled even that far only by the power of the lotus flower from heaven's gardens. And so she did not give up, and so she flew on.

At her back though, she could hear the howls of demons, and feel their dark souls rumbling in the air and drawing near. And at the center of them, a menace her panicked mind knew threatened to steal her away and lock her up. "Help Me!" She shouted into the treacherous air and into the ether of souls that still kept her aloft.

The wind spun her and she had the chance to see behind her more clearly. A wall of wailing faces and claws made of air and cold rain and mist swelled and moved in towards her like a tide. She let loose a yell of fright and turned with renewed motivation to be far away from here. Back home with the people she'd met here, or back home with her brother and her family, she didn't care she just wanted away, she wanted someone to help her... She wasn't cut out for this. Not without the others... Not without the jewel, without Midoriko, without Kikyo... She should be back home, keeping a promise to a little girl who smiled at her and thought she was magic, that's where she should be...

And so, and yet, she beat her wings harder against the wind and she flew on.

Something would happen, somehow. It had to.

"Please, help me." Her voice spoke softly, lost in the wind.

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The sun was setting back at the village that Kikyo and her younger sister had called home at one time. The strange thing was, that to all appearances, though many years had gone by since the time when that was true, to see the sisters now, InuYasha would not be able to tell by looking at either of them that any time had passed at all. For him, that would be natural. He was a demon, or half of one at any rate, or he normally was. Right now he was human, but normally he wasn't, normally he was immortal. Kikyo and her little sister weren't supposed to be. Truthfully though, he was starting to wonder if somehow they were in some way as immortal as he was usually.

He looked up at the moon that had just started to come into view in the dimming sky and tried to make sense of what was happening. Lately, thing hadn't made that much sense to him, he felt honestly like he was being tossed about on the winds or tides and was unable to stop it from happening.

"InuYasha..." A voice said. He looked over to the one sitting beside him. Kikyo. Or was it Kikyo?

"So, this is all a dream?" He suddenly asked her. "That... girl's dream. That's what's going on. Is that it?" His voice was sounding a little lost and a little annoyed. The annoyed part was normal, the lost part, that was kind of normal for him too when Kikyo was involved.

Kikyo nodded. "That's what Midoriko says. We're all like this because it's what's on our minds in some way." She sounded more like Kagome now. "It is strange." Now sounding like Kikyo. "I remember it all now; Kagome, Kikyo, the lives I've had in between and even before... Or, at least I think I do... She trailed off." Sounding like Kagome again. "I guess I wanted to be whole somehow. It's weird, I don't remember wanting that..." She trailed off trying to figure it out. "I know I... I know I love you though. I know it, InuYasha." She looked at InuYasha then and leaned in to kiss him.

InuYasha moved forward to meet the kiss, his hand involuntarily moving up to lightly touch her face. He felt her hands touch him in return as well. It was a regular sort of kiss, just a regular one. Not intensely passionate, or at all tentative. It was just a kiss, sure and filled with the ease of a sense of long familiarity.

Finally breaking apart, their eyes held. "Do you think... do you think we're stuck this way?" InuYasha asked, feeling conflicted about what he wanted in that regard.

"I don't think so..." She said. "I can sense it somehow. When Sapphire wakes, we'll all go back to the way we were before." She looked down at her lap.

InuYasha looked at Kikyo or Kagome or whatever her name was right now, he considered this and tried to think of something to say or do, but he came up with nothing. Instead he looked out at the moon again. "So... Miroku wants to be a girl now?" He said in contemplation.

Kikyo laughed, coving her mouth partially. "I don't think it's exactly like that." She giggled.

"Yeah, well, whatever way it is, you know I'm never going to let him live this down, don't you?" He gave her a slightly cruel smile as he considered the ways he was going to use this information to torment his friend.

"I just wonder what Sango will say when she finds out." Kagome put in, her mind imagining what her friend's reaction might be and finding the image very amusing.

They both broke into more laugher.

It was a laughter not to last long for Kikyo tough...

"Please, help me." She heard the whispered voice plead to her.

"Kagome? ...Kikyo?" A suddenly sober and concerned InuYasha asked her as she looked up to the sky and stood.

InuYasha stood as well in response to her action, and she looked over at him. "She's coming back." She sounded like Kagome "We need to be ready." Spoke Kikyo.

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Midoriko looked down fondly at the little girl sleeping in her lap who now only had the memories of herself as a little girl. She knew Kaede, and felt close to her in the way a spirit feels a connections to all those of it's line. And she knew her more, she knew her almost as though she were her sister too. She and Kikyo, their souls had held back the darkness side by side. Kikyo was the one who had come and helped her carry her burden after so long alone. And now this was her sister here, trusting her to keep her safe while she slept. It had been so long since she'd felt so... human... it was a very good feeling, she thought with a smile.

Looking up, her smile continued as she saw the fox warrior, Shippo, proudly showing off his new prowess as a warrior by way of some equivalent to air boxing to a very awkward and unsure looking Miroku who was doing his/her best to humor the fox demon, clapping and smiling when appropriate when he did something impressive. She could tell though, that the monk wasn't exactly doing so well as all that. She could sense the worry for the girl who's body his appearance now mimicked, and she could tell he was more than a little weirded out by his current predicament too. She laughed softly to herself as she remembered his reaction when it had really donned on him what had happened and who he looked like now. It was a memory she knew she could keep and laugh over centuries hence without guilt.

"Please, help me..." Midoriko heard the whispered words and her eyes went wide.

The door opened a moment later and she looked up to see Kikyo and InuYasha walk back in. Kaede seemed to stir a little at the cool breeze let in and the sound of the door, but she did not wake. "You heard too?" Said asked, looking at Midoriko.

Midoriko nodded. "Of course." She said. "She'll be here soon."

"Who will?" InuYasha asked impatiently.

Kikyo met his eyes. "Sapphire." She said simply.

"Nor, I'm afraid, will she arrive alone." Midoriko said, looking worriedly down at Kaede, not liking the thought of having her put in danger. "We must be ready." She looked at Kikyo in silent communication.

"We're going to be attacked soon." Kagome said quietly, her gaze breaking from Midoriko's and traveling first to Miroku, then to Shippo, and then to InuYasha. "It's a hoard of demons or something... You can't fight them like this." She said to him.

InuYasha looked like he was going to protest, but then thought better of it, looking down at his human hands. "Fine." He said resignedly, walking over to the far side of the room and leaning moodily against a wall, looking down at the floor.

"I can fight." Shippo's stepped forward surely. Kikyo nodded her approval, as did Midoriko.

"I as well." Miroku said, trying to shake off his feelings of awkwardness and uncertainly caused by his 'new look'.

"Miroku..." Kagome spoke. "You've never... You don't know how to fight... Not like Sango fights. Are you sure you can...?"

"It doesn't matter, I've--"

"Wait." Interrupted Midoriko. They both looked to her, and she looked down at the sleeping girl in her arms. "Someone needs to protect this little one from harm. "I believe you are the best choice for this." She spoke to Miroku.

Miroku looked conflicted a moment, but then his eyes really looked at the small girl in Midoriko's arms and his heart went out to the girl. More than anything, even more than he'd wanted to finally slay Naraku and lift his family's curse, he'd always wanted to be a father. Even his quest to slay that demon had mostly been so that his child would not have to go through what he had. He knew he could not turn down the priestess's request. "I will stay with her." He spoke softly, stepping forward.

"They'll have to get by me too." InuYasha spoke up, receiving a meaningful look and a small smile from Kagome/Kikyo for this.

"Very well." Midoriko said, nodding her head slightly to the two volunteers and standing up, Kaede cradled gently in her arms. She walked over to Miroku, who still of course looked like Sango, and indicated for him to take the sleeping child. "I entrust her to you. Watch over her carefully and let no one do her harm." She spoke with solemn intent.

Miroku met the woman's ageless eyes and felt at once like he was better and more noble a person than he had a right to be. As though she saw something in him he hadn't known was there. He straightened his back and bowed his head slightly as he took the child in his arms. "You have my promise, lady Midoriko. I will watch over her with my very life."

Midoriko smiled and nodded, satisfied. She then looked to Kikyo and to Shippo. "Shall we go then."

"I'm ready." Shippo's said with solemn pride.

Kikyo nodded. "Then we'll go to face them." She said simply, retrieving her bow and arrows and sparing a last look at InuYasha before turning and walking out the door, followed by Midoriko who did not look back, and Shippo who gave the others sympathetic looks as he went. He knew neither of his friends liked being left out of the fight, InuYasha especially. Though, Shippo's had to admit, a very small part of him liked the fact that he was the stronger one now and that others had to depend on him for protection. It was a guilty thought, and not how he really felt, but still he felt his father looking down on him, and that part of him that he'd long tucked away came to the fore. He was getting his chance. The chance to prove to his father's spirit that he was really worthy. Like his father had been.

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Outside, the wind howled and Sapphire saw Kaede's house in the distance. Somehow she had made it. Somehow she'd found it. Just a little farther to go now, and she'd be there.

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to be continued

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p.s. Here's some replies to a couple comments left...

Queen Of The BLUE Moon says "I like the idea of this and the story so far is really good but I do have some questions, is this going to turn out to be like an InuyashaXOC? Is Kikyo going to turn up in the story? I mean the really Kikyo, not Kikyo's soul that lives inside of Sapphire."

---Thanks Queen Blue, I'm glad you're liking the story so far. To answer your questions: That's a no to the InuyashaXOC (at least not in any serious way, maybe a little flirting). For Kikyo, like you say, in spirit at least she's been there from the start, and I'd argue that a person's spirit kinda does count as the real them if anything does, but yeah, I think it's safe to say, even more than the confusing stuff you've seen this chapter, she'll be making her flesh and blood appearance before all that long. Hope you'll stay tuned ^_^

Fon-Master Ion says" This story is nice ^~^ i wanna see kikyo ^~^ hope you update soon ^~^ P.S. my friend wants to review this story, but she has no account and can't review 'cause you don't accept anonymous reviews, lol. if possible, please activate it ^~^ bye now ^~^"

---Thanks Ion, it was great to hear from you. Thanks for pointing out that thing about the accept anonymous reviews, hadn't even realized the setting was there (it's been activated now). And for Kikyo, asked and answered by Queen Of The BLUE Moon.

Also, thanks to Yuti-Chan and someone ID'd as only ????????? for the other great comments left. Hope the new chapter meets with your approval, and... sorry it took a while to get posted ^_^;

until next time,

J. Anne


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